Bay-area bound

[trochee]

[ETA: Unlocked post now (and specifics removed); please feel free to point your Bay-area friends here!]

It's official as of Monday afternoon: we're going to the Bay Area. imtboo has been admitted to a San Francisco school for her chosen field.

School starts August 21 for her, so we'll be moving out of Seattle and down to the Bay Area in that first week of August, more or less.

I will be finishing up my dissertation at a desk in a research lab in Menlo Park. But D's school is downtown -- right by the Civic Center BART stop. Unfortunately, this means that one of us will be commuting a long way on the CalTrain and/or the BART. At the moment, it looks like it might be her, since at at least for the first semester she'll only have classes two (very full) days a week, while I'll be at ResearchLab five days a week.

Any suggestions or comments, from people who live in the Bay Area (or who have lived there) about places to live -- or to avoid? I think the East Bay is out for us -- the commute to Menlo Park is insane -- but we're considering paying more to live in the city, or paying less to live on the Peninsula. Any recommendations?

Bay Area roll call:
apollinax or bicoastal?
lunacow?
evan?
xaosenkosmos -- you've already sent us comments, thanks!
damidnara?
cleverpig?
I'm sure I've missed people in this roll-call. Anybody else?

Comments

[tulip-tree.livejournal.com]

Good luck! I have little that's useful to add - I love SF and have been visiting relatives and family friends in the bay area every few years for most of my life but haven't spent enough time there to know much. I did read the rest of the comments just for fun, and coincidentally, I have cousins in Noe Valley, which I saw mentioned a couple of times. It seems like a nice area.

I'm glad that things are working out for you to be at SRI while you finish.

We have a bit of the same issue with A's job in one place and my job possibilities kind of spread out all over the region, so I sympathize with that challenge. Good luck finding a nice place to live with acceptable commutes for both of you!

[trochee.livejournal.com]

Dustin from our lab is currently in Noe Valley and I have a feeler out to him about suggestions there too.

thanks!